The present invention relates to machinery for manufacturing glass containers, and more particularly to an I.S. (individual section) machine.
An I.S. (individual section) machine has a plurality of identical sections each of which has a blank station which receives one or more gobs of molten glass and forms them into parisons having a threaded opening at the bottom (the finish) and a blow station which receives the parisons and forms them into bottles standing upright with the finish at the top. The blank station includes opposed pairs of blankmold halves and the blow station includes opposed pairs of blowmold halves. Each of these mold halves is carried on an insert which is mounted on an arm or support which is displaceable between open and closed positions.
I.S. machines are sized according to center distances, i.e., the maximum container body diameter. Common I.S. machine center distances are double gob (TG) 4xc2xcxe2x80x3 and triple gob (DG) 3xe2x80x3. Different containers require different amounts of cooling and the diameter of the mold will increase (providing more room for vertical cooling passages) with increased demand for cooling. Accordingly a DG 4xc2xcxe2x80x3 mold may have a 4⅝xe2x80x3 or 5.0xe2x80x3 band diameter and a DG 5xe2x80x3 mold may have 4⅝xe2x80x3, 5xe2x85x9xe2x80x3 or 6xe2x80x3 band diameters. The mold is supported on a suitable circumferential groove defined in the supporting insert.
The one constant has been the location of the face of the planar mold. As a result, as the band diameter increases, the dimension of the supporting insert must inversely decrease. This means that each band diameter mold has its dedicated insert and that everytime that a band diameter or configuration (double/triple gob) is changed both the molds and the inserts have to be changed.
It is accordingly an object of this invention to provide an I.S. machine which requires an inventory of fewer inserts and wherein the band diameter of a mold can be changed without changing the insert.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following portion of this specification and from the accompanying drawings that illustrate in accordance with the mandate of the patent statutes a presently preferred embodiment incorporating the principles of the invention.